Round 1: was just easy free swim
Round 2: was increased speed, but still somewhat easy.Round 3: I did this with my Zoomers and Paddles, and holy it was tough!!
(Round 3's times were: :28/:45/1:02/1:19/1:39)
Got really tough by the end and I fell apart in the 150.

200 EZ Swim

5 x 100 Free Pull @ 1:30 breathing pattern 2-3-2-3 which I had to think about since I normally only breathe to the right. Made me work on my body roll to the other side.

4 x 50s semi quick pace: One of the normal lap swimmers wanted to race me while he was using fins and I went normal.
I did 2 free and 2 fly. The frees I just went quick enough to stay with him. The flys I had to pretty much sprint to try to win against him. I was 1 for 2 on the fly.
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2500 Yards

Other good news: My ex finally got picked up after a year and a half of skipping out on her child support court hearing. She's not a good one to make the story short. I just got the paperwork from the court hearing that just finally happened and she got the book thrown at her. $$$$...finally.

The Apple Capital meet (USA-S) is coming up the first weekend of June, the 3rd - 5th. This is basically the Wenatchee club team hosting all the PNS (Pacific NW) club teams for a beat-down.
The best thing for me is that the pool is less than 2 miles from my house! Yippie!! Finally I don't have to drive forever to do a meet!!
I'm sure there will be a few Masters swimmers in the meet other than me, but they do have coaching responsibilities I'd assume, so may not be swimming too much. Plus, there will be a few college kids home for the summer. I think I'll be busy waving the

Well, I made it. I'm sunburned redder than a lobster from Saturday and waterlogged from the downpour of rain today, so had a little of everything...including my handed to me by a bunch of 14-16 year old kids. I swam all my events as exhibition so I wouldn't take awards/placing away from the age groupers as well, not that there were that many in the 17+ ages.
This was swum in a 6 lane, 50 meter pool with no additional space for cooldown. Starting end was 12 feet deep, but went to 4 feet at the 15 meter point, and continued to 3 feet at the turn end. Not the best pool, but the pool doesn't make the swim fast, that's the swimmer's job to make the swim fast no matter what the conditions are!

Saturday:
HOT, 79 degrees and pure sun. No clouds in the sky, and a little breezy. Not bad for the middle of May in Idaho.

400 IM: 5:23.61 (best time/also a new LMSC record)
30.0/36.8 (1:06.8)
43.9/43.3 (1:27.2)
48.7/48.9 (1:37.6)
--.-/--.- (1:11.9)
I was 5th overall among the 13 & Over boys division. I was pleased with the swim. My backstroke still sucks in an IM event though.

200 Back: 2:37.84 (best time by 3 sec./also a new LMSC record)
--.-/--.- (1:16.4)
41.4/39.9 (1:21.3)
All I was thinking during this event was "where are those damn flags???!!?"

100 Breast: 1:23.19 (best time)
38.3/44.8
I'm definitely needing walls at the 25s to have another pullout in breaststroke. Ugly!

100 Free: 1:00.11 (best time by 0.7 sec./also a new LMSC record)
--.-/--.-
Sooooo close to breaking a minute.
Didn't get the splits, but I got a video It felt really good when at about the 75-80 meter point the kid next to me fell back and I kept going.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_rcXOD95YE"]YouTube - 5-14-11 100 LCM Free @ Lewiston, ID USA-S Meet[/nomedia]

200 Fly: 2:32.08 (best time by 0.3 sec./also a new LMSC record)
Don't look at these splits, and please don't laugh too hard.
30.1/37.9 (1:08.2)
41.2/43.0 (ouch)
Basically, this was my 5th event of the meet, and it was literally 15 minutes after the 100 free. I felt good thru about 125 meters, and after that I just watched everyone pass me. I've got another chance for the 200 Fly at our home meet in June.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsGQYvrUA6g"]YouTube - 5-14-11 200 LCM Fly @ Lewiston, ID USA-S Meet[/nomedia]

Sunday:
Cold, +-50 Degrees or so, clear skies at first, then the clouds and wind started coming in, turning to light rain, then a complete downpour!!

400 Free: 4:49.38 (best time by 1 sec./also a new LMSC record)
1:06.7/1:14.2/1:14.8/1:13.7
I was in the outside lane of the final heat and just tried to ignore the kids in the middle. I split it pretty good, but looking at it now, I probably could have brought each 100 down another second or two.

100 Fly: 1:05.62
--.-/--.-
Considering the temperature dropped really quickly, and the rain started pouring at this point, it was a great swim. I was about 1 second slower than my swim from last year which was indoors. I was happy with this because I was also 2nd place overall in the event. The kid that beat me just finished his freshman year at the Univ. of Puget Sound, where he set the conference record in the 200 Fly this year.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lly96_kVRzo"]YouTube - 5-15-11 100 LCM Fly @ Lewiston, ID USA-S meet[/nomedia]

200 Free: Cancelled
The downpour of rain and wind was so intense, and it was freezing that the officials decided to call off the remainder of the meet, which still had 4 or 5 more total events for all ages to go. I only ended up missing this one event, but that's OK with me.

It's a 6 lane 50 meter pool, I've never swum in this size pool before, but at least I'm in the top heat in all of my races. 200 back isn't considered a race, if you want to get technical about it...it's a survival swim.

This will be one heck of a challenge too. Lots of events, and I get to start it all off with the hardest event possible (IMO) for LCM swimming.

The pool was freezing cold too!! I know what 79 degrees feels like from competitions at big meets, and this was WAY colder than that. Even after I sprinted the first part of the warmup, my body was still freezing.

100 Free Sprint
300 Free
100 Fly

6 x 50 25 Fly/25 Free :05 rest

12 x 100 Free
4 @ 1:30
4 @ 1:25
4 @ 1:20
I was able to hold these all at 1:05 or under which was nice.

I missed the last two mornings...
Tuesday A.M. I was lazy, turned off my alarm clock and went back to bed...then I realized I had done that and missed practice, reset my alarm clock for a normal "work time".
Wednesday A.M. Forget to reset my alarm clock for "swim time" and overslept swimming again!! This is so unlike me! Oh well, I'm human.

Thursday night I was bored so I decided to go down to the Y pool and swim a little. Probably another 1500 Yards or so. The highlight of the swim was a 100 Free AFAP in which I did a :54, from a push. Considering I went out in a :54 on my 200 Free at Nationals from a dive, I'd say I'm feeling much better with a little more training in me.

----------------

Friday:

Warmup
200 Free
300 Free Pull
100 Kick on side

5 x 100 Free @ 1:25 (held 1:10s)

20 x 25 Fly @ :30 strong, (held :15/:16s)

200 IM Drill stretch out

At this point it was 5:45 in which the group all comes together to do drills/etc. together with the coach on deck instructing. I didn't feel like doing another set, so I decided to join them for a change. Here's what we did, which wasn't drills like I had thought:

4 x 25 w/ fins AFAP Kick @ :30

4 x swims @ 2:00 interval
--coach came by and gave each person a specific distance to be completed in the 2:00 interval...I was assigned 175s. The next longest distance behind me was only a 125. My first thought was Oh !! I tried to plead for the 150 distance but coach said HAHA!!

I ended up making:
#1 @ 1:51
#2 came in at 1:59
#3 skipped the first 50 and left :30 later -did 125 & came in with :10 rest
#4 came in at 1:56

Basically did a 700 in 8:00 (minus a 50)

50 EZ and out
-----------------
2600 Yards

We have the Apple Blossom festival this weekend in Wenatchee, and two parades in town this weekend, one is the "Classy Chassis" parade tonight (all the cool old cars come out of the garages tonight), and that is the reason our company is only running 5 hours for the two shifts today...so everyone can get home. I got off work at 11:30, and went back to the pool for a nice easy stretch out swim.

3 Rounds of:
1 x 200 Free (3:00/2:45/2:30 by round)
2 x 100 Free (1:30/1:25/1:20)
4 x 50 Free (:50/:45/:40)
1:00 rest after each round
I was holding roughly 1:05 base per 100 throughout the entire set, so it wasn't too easy.
If I didn't have the others with me, and about 10 more minutes available I would've gone for Round 4, which would have been really fun intervals (2:15/1:15/:35)

100 Back EZ
--------------
3000 Yards

Basic, but a fun set. I had a good group of 4 in the lane to swim this with too, which was a big change for me. I'm usually doing my sets solo, or having to fight with other who want to jump in late and "warmup" forever. I felt really good today.

Getting back at it again. I got back into the state of Washington at about 4:00pm Monday afternoon, and drove home the 2 hours from the airport just in time for my daughter's parent/child swim class which was relaxing after the weekend. The 83 degree YMCA water was hot on my skin after the pool temp from Kino, and the sunburn on the skin.
After the lesson I got in a stretched out about 1000 yards, this was mainly my cool down from after the meet.

Tuesday warmup:
400 Free
400 Pull
200 IM Drill

Main:
16 x 100 Free @ 1:30 - I just went at a nice consistent pace around 1:09s. Nothing too hard, but not too easy either. When I finished the set I was actually breathing pretty hard.

1 x 400 Free Pull

1 x 100 Back EZ cool down
--------------
3100 Yards

I'm feeling good after getting the yardage in this morning. Just need to maintain like this as much as possible. I have a LCM showdown with the age group kids in two weeks May 14-15. I've got a few tough events too, 400 IM and 200 Fly LCM are both I haven't done a 400 IM LCM as a masters swimmer yet, but I might as well get one in the books. The 200 Fly should be better than last weekends showing at least. Just think of it as a BIG 100.

Overall, I had a good time at the Nationals meet. I had a few good swims, but for the most part I was hugely dissappointed by my results. I felt that I could have performed much better, and this was basically my own fault...I tapered too much and lost my endurance for the longer races altogether. Oh well...live and learn. At least I had season best swims in all events, and a few were even masters swimming bests.
I've got a few videos that I need to upload, and they'll be here soon.
I also did get to meet Elaine at the meet as well. She's a very good cheer person!

Saturday:200 Fly - 26.52/30.67/33.14/36.79 = 2:07.12 was a best masters time by .6 seconds, but I should have been able to bring back my last 2 50s in 31s/32s if all had gone well. Oh well. I finished 8th place
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAOlh0LlGFA"]YouTube - 4-30-11 200 Fly Mesa Nationals[/nomedia]

100 Back - 29.86/31.68 = 1:01.54 was a best masters time by a full second! I was happy with the race, other than the fact this was an OUTDOOR MEET IN ARIZONA!!! That sun was horrible!! I was able to beat 3 people in my age group though (does it count that 2 of them were N.S.???)

200 Free - 25.67/28.76/30.17/30.33 = 1:54.93 was a best time for the season, .5 seconds slower than last year's time. I felt crummy on this race after the first 50. It was windy during the race and the water was splashing from my lead arm and I was breathing in a lot of water vapor mist that normally I don't have to deal with. That part sucked...
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0D2Fm2JsHg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL"]YouTube - James Adams 200 free, Mesa Nationals[/nomedia]

Courtesy of Patrick Brundage (pwb) - Thank you!

Sunday:500 Free - **note: make sure you're sitting down before viewing these splits!
26.19/29.61 (55.80)
30.87/31.76
32.13/32.50
32.67/32.99
33.31/32.19 = 5:14.22 11th place by 0.5 seconds! Missed a medal, not that this swim was deserving of a medal IMO. Still it was a season best time.
I was in 3rd place at the 100 which is great and about where I wanted to be, but...my body couldn't handle it this time.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVkI14GgFXI"]YouTube - 5-1-11 500 Free Mesa Nationals[/nomedia]

100 Fly - 26.28/30.56 = 56.84 masters best time by 0.6 seconds. I was happy with it, but thought I could've gone a little faster.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTjiOBXXVl0"]YouTube - James Adams 100yd Butterfly[/nomedia]

Courtesy of Elaine Krugman (ElaineK) - Thank you!

200 IM - 26.70/33.17/38.83/30.12 = 2:08.82 Best masters time by 1.5 seconds. Finished in 9th place, but someone DQ'd so I got 8th! I was happy to end the meet on a good note. Very happy with the swim, though my freestyle was dragging at the end and I couldn't finish as fast as I had hoped to.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA4VsDC9HO0"]YouTube - 5-1-11 200 IM Mesa Nationals[/nomedia]

Time to get back in the pool and train train train. Got to break this taper. I've got a LCM meet in 2 weeks swimming USA-S, and should be fine. I'm just going to get back in the pool and hit it hard, seems to make me swim the best anyways.

Got in the water this morning for a nice quick swim of about 800 yards or so. I had to test a few quick turns for my knee, and freestyle turns are okay, it's the open turns for fly that are putting a little bit of pain on the inside of my knee. Eventually I'll probably end up going to visit the doctor, but I'm waiting till after Nationals...that way she can't tell me no.

I took a vacation day from work, and am just doing some last minute packing up for the meet, not that I need much. I'll be transforming from a hairy gorilla monster to a swimmer in a few hours from now.

Again, good luck to all the swimmers in today's events (except of course the 30-34 mens 400 IMers) I'll be leaving Washington State this afternoon, and getting into Phoenix around 8:30pm. My day 1 will be everyone else's day 2 or 3, but the schedule of events actually worked out pretty good for almost all my best swims to be on Saturday and Sunday anyway.

I just did my 2nd to last dip in the pool this morning...feeling pretty good too. I did a whoppin' 1200 Yards today, with a "meet warmup" type swim tomorrow morning. I'm full of energy this morning too, and that could be from the extra sleep (in bed by 8pm) I had last night from feeling sickish all day long yesterday.

I'm going to be stuck at work for today, while everyone else is either having fun in the sun, or headed for the sunny weather of Arizona. Good luck to all in the 1000s and 1650s today, and the 400 IM tomorrow morning (except those 30-34 yr olds... hehehe) Need to try to maintain my TT chances, but nothing I can do except sit back and watch the results pour in.

At least I took off all of Friday from work so I can relax for the trip. I'll be flying out from the Tri Cities, WA to Phoenix via Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon, arriving about 8:30 Friday night. My dad is getting to make the trip with me, so that will be fun. He really enjoys watching me swim...just like when I was a kid.

Saturday:200 Fly - entered a 2:04, swam a 2:06 a few weeks ago, looking for 2:02 or under. Knee or no knee pain, I'm going for it.100 Back - this is my 6th event (I'm hoping for cancellation due to a lightning storm) I'll try for under a 1:00, but no guarantees 200 Free - I've only been a 1:56 this season, but that was a few minutes after I did the 1650 or the 1000 at 2 different meets. I've done a 1:58 in practice a few weeks ago, so I'm expecting greatness. 1:50 or so.

Probably a relay or two (find out when I get there...relays don't bother me, they're only 50s)

Sunday:500 Free -I did a 5:17 this year at the end of a meet, but I was too tired to go really fast. Did a 5:11 last year, but I know I'm in way better shape this season. Looking for anything on the clock that starts with a 4:xx.xx100 Fly - This is my sprint event. I did a 57.3 in January after my 200 Fly. I'm shooting for under a 55, but anything can happen in a sprint.200 IM - This will be another sprint - 4 x 50 AFAP. I'll see how my knee fares with the breaststroke in the race. I haven't done one kick of breaststroke in the past couple weeks since it's been sore. Looking for 2:05 or under.
Probably a relay (again find out later)

...my knee pain is still sore, but is getting better. I think this is just a temporary incident that just happened to be a week before the biggest meet of the year!! But I should be okay. I've been able to put more pressure on it today, and swimming was fine. I didn't do anything explosive yet, and probably won't for a few more days.